The Top 5 Lessons I Learned from Tim Grover at the Perfect Life Retreat

While there were several powerhouse speakers present at the Perfect Life Retreat, there was one whom I was particularly excited to hear.

His name is Tim Grover, the CEO and Founder of Attack Athletics and the former personal trainer to none other than Michael Jordan.

As the best-selling author of the book Relentless Tim has devoted his entire life to helping top performers go from good to great to Unstoppable.

And today, I want to share the top 5 lessons that I learned from his presentation at the recent Perfect Life Retreat.

Enjoy…

1. You Cannot Become Great… Until You Do This

Almost everyone wants to achieve greatness.

It seems to be an inextricable part of the human experience.

We’re all born with an innate desire for excellence and an unshakable yearing to be considered among the best in the world at our respective craft.

But all too often, well meaning gurus and experts will encourage us to pursue this inescapable ambition while failing to address the one commonality present among all of the greats.

A die hard commitment to mastering the fundamentals.

I wish I could tell you that greatness was just around the corner, that it is but one affirmation, one goal, or one accomplishment away.

But I can’t…

Greatness – whatever your definition of the word might be – requires time, patience, and an uncommon commitment to consistently refining your skills.

Before you can become great, you must first master ‘good’ and before you can master ‘good’ you must master average.

You must learn to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run.

You cannot build a 7-figure business before you’ve built a 6-figure business. You can’t become a truly great writer before you suffer through the rejection and criticism of being an amateur. You cannot become ‘great’ until you are first ‘good’.

To illustrate this point, Tim shared how his client Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time would begin every single one of his practices (even when he was at the top of his game) in the same way.

Practicing the most fundamental movement in the entire sport: the chest pass.

Despite his impressive track record of success and uncanny skill at his sport, he still practiced the fundamentals of his craft everyday.

So let me ask you… What fundamentals have you ignored in your pursuit of greatness?

What are the basic activities and practices that you’ve allowed to slide as you’ve grown in your skill?

If you’re a copywriter, do you still write down the best headlines of all time by hand each day?

If you’re a salesman or high ticket closer, do you still practice handling basic objections and practice your skills on role play calls?

If you’re a coach, how often do you practice your craft and research new ways to serve your clients?

No matter where you are in your life and business it is your mastery of the fundamentals that will determine your ability to be great.

So commit to those fundamentals.

Practice them daily.

Act as if you are only beginning your journey into whatever craft you’ve chosen to master.

At the end of the day, this is how greatness really happens.

2. Eliminate Haters with These 4 Words

Most people will not understand you.

If you want to achieve uncommon goals in your lifetime, you must accept the fact that many of the people you love and respect will turn into your biggest haters and critics the second that you step outside of your comfort zone and pursue your big vision.

Your family will encourage you to “Play it safe” and “Stay in your lane”.

Your friends from childhood will think you’ve lost your mind.

Even your spouse and closest allies might discourage you from pursuing the things you really want.

It’s not that they’re bad people.

More often than not, they have your best interests in mind. But there is a fundamental incongruity between the reality that you are trying to create and what they believe to be possible.

They don’t know the things you know. They don’t share your self-confidence and unshakable optimism.

Years of hard times and societal conditioning lead most people to relegate themselves to a life of mediocrity and believe the lie that “This is just the way things are”.

And when they believe something is impossible for themselves, they will believe it’s impossible for you.

When this happens – and believe me it will – you must respond with 4 simple words…

“Screw you, watch me”.

“I don’t think you can actually quit your job and make this whole online business thing work”

“Screw you, watch me”.

“There’s no way you’re really going to lose the weight and quit smoking this time.”

“Screw you, watch me.”

“You think you can be a best selling author? Maybe you should be more realistic, you know most authors never sell more than 100 copies of their books?”

“Screw you, watch me”.

Whether you actually say these four words or not, the attitude behind it must become a core part of your modus operandi.

If you are committed to achieving greatness and living your best life, you must learn to operate without the validation and encouragement of others.

Become your own greatest fan and trust yourself enough to pursue your big goals and make them happen.

Trust yourself even when no one else will. Go all in on your hopes and dreams whether the world understands you or not. Pursue your highest calling without shame or fear of other peoples opinions.

Because if you don’t, you will remain stuck in the land of mediocrity and somedayitis.

3. How You Should Really Respond to Your Weaknesses

Since the day that we were born, we’ve been taught that we have only two approaches to handle our weaknesses…

Work on them

Or hide from them

According to Tim (and every other performer playing at his level) both of these options are prescriptions for a lifetime of mediocrity and struggle.

Instead, you must opt for a third path…

Own. Your. Weaknesses.

No matter how hard you work, no matter how diligently you apply yourself to the task of eradicating weaknesses from your life, you will always have shortcomings and blind spots.

It’s part of being human.

And there is no amount of running, dodging, or hiding you can do to escape the fact that you cannot be great at everything.

However, when you own your weaknesses instead of hiding from or surrendering to them, they lose all control over your life.

When you are painfully aware of your weaknesses and then put people and systems in place to mitigate their significance, they lose all power over your future and your goals.

You aren’t good at writing copy? Great! Hire someone who is and focus on your area of genius.

You suck at selling over the phone? No problem. Create a killer sales funnel that allows you to sell through video or hire a commission-only sales rep to do the heavy lifting for you.

You’re terrible at creating content? Not to worry. Leverage your brand and authority to get other people to write your content for free.

Tim, for example, is the self-proclaimed “Worst speller in the world”.

But guess what?

That hasn’t stopped him from writing a best selling book, dozens of blog articles, and 7-figure business proposals.

He’s simply “passed off” his weakness to other people for whom spelling is a strength.

Your weaknesses are exactly that… Your weaknesses.

4. A Simple Mental Reframe that Will Turn Pain Into Your Greatest Ally

When you break things down into their most component parts, people are only motivated by two things…

Pursuing pleasure and escaping pain.

The problem is that most people misunderstand the real power of these motivators.

They are so afraid of experiencing pain that they never learn how to tap into its power and thus transmute it into their greatest ally.

The most successful people in the world are not motivated by the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure or the desire to acquire more stuff… but by their desire to eradicate pain.

In his Impact Theory interview, my good friend Bedros Keuilian shared how all of the hard work and daily effort that he brings to his life and business is motivated not by the desire to achieve success but by his fear – a.k.a. the PAIN – of failure.

But most people miss this point.

They see pain and fear as inherently negative motivators. They falsely believe that there is something wrong with being motivated by pain.

But they’re wrong.

When you can tap into the visceral fears and pain points in your life and experience them at the strongest level, you will unlock a level of ambition and motivation you can barely begin to imagine.

Just ask yourself if you knew that someone you loved was going to die if you didn’t hit all of your 5-year goals in the next 6 months, do you think you could achieve them?

Of course!

It’s only when our back’s are against a wall that we learn what we are really made of.

So stop running from your pain… Embrace it.

Write down all of the things that terrify you and all of the things that have happened to you that have been painful.

Maybe you were abused as a child.

Maybe you were bullied and told you would never be good enough.

Maybe you’ve faced the sting of real failure and lost everything before.

Maybe you’ve had a spouse or significant other leave you.

Whatever it is, write it down.

… I’ll wait.

Once you have your list, I want you to review it every day.

Never forget all of the people who didn’t believe in you, the obstacles you’ve overcome, and the pain that you’ve experienced to get you where you are today.

Use this list as fuel to drive you to the next level.

Tap into the power of pain and fear and use them to your advantage.

The pursuit of pleasure might get you started, but it’s your fears and pains that will carry you to the finish line.

5. Rules Don’t Apply

Ever since the day you were born you’ve been told to be a good little boy or girl, sit down, be quiet, and follow the rules.

But if you want to become successful at the highest levels, the levels reserved for the top 1% of our society, you must realize that the rules don’t apply.

I’m not referring to the basic principles of ethics and morality.

It should go without saying that neither Tim nor myself is encouraging anyone to break the law or act unscrupulously.

Rather, that all of the “should’s”, “can’t’s” and “must’s” don’t apply to those who want to be great.

Things like…

You have to go to college to be successful

You have to put in your time before starting your own endeavor

You can’t become a best-selling author with your first book

It’ always been done this way so you have to do it this way too.

… Are all restrictions and lies that have been put into place to keep the masses safely in their comfort zones.

Just think about Elon Musk. Do you think he followed the rules to create the life he lives today?

Of course not!

He didn’t listen to the people who told him things like:

Sending money online? You can’t do that!

You can’t invest all of your money into a Solar Company and a freakin space program! That’ll never work.

If you want to change the world and leave a dent in the universe, you must adopt the same attitude.

Beyond the constraints of physics, time, and math there are no rules.

There is no great overlord dictating what is and isn’t possible in your life.

So if you want to go for something that others deem to be unrealistic or downright crazy… Do it!

March to the beat of your own drummer and make your own rules.

Because every big idea and world changing creation was crazy until someone did it.

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After dropping out of college at 18, Austin set out to travel the world and turn his passion for sharing big ideas through writing into a full time income. Today, he's succeeded at his goal and is the Editor for Early to Rise, Director of Content for Knowledge for Men, and a highly sought after freelance writer whose ghost-written work has been featured on Forbes, The Huffington Post, Inc.com among other major outlets. When he isn't exploring new cities, writing game-changing content, or devouring his latest stack of books, you'll find him kicked back in a hammock on the beaches of Mexico with his girlfriend and two-year old Pomeranian, Zelda

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